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Kalispell Seminar to Offer Pointers for Local Businesses

By Beacon Staff

It’s no secret that the Flathead economy is hurting; the recession has taken its toll on the valley, as well as the rest of the country. However, an upcoming event hopes to give businesses in the Flathead an optimistic point of view and the tools to help promote and grow their interests.

“Success in the New West,” a business symposium sponsored by the Flathead Area Young Professionals and Flathead Valley Community College, will bring together some of the most successful and knowledgeable professionals from the valley to present the ideas and practices that have worked for them, according to Naomi Morrison, co-chair of the event’s organization committee.

Taking place on March 11, the symposium will tackle professional development, sales and marketing and entrepreneurship and manufacturing. There will be nine presentations in all, and participants will be able to pick three to attend because many will run concurrently.

“It’s our goal essentially is bringing the talent that’s right here in our valley to the public,” Morrison said. “We want to bring the talents together with people who are thirsty for education.”

Instead of focusing on the recession’s negative impacts, Morrison said the symposium would zero in on what businesses can do to help their short- and long-term goals. It will also be a hotbed for networking possibilities and a chance for businesses to become familiar with vendor opportunities in the Flathead, Morrison said.

“It’s really old school marketing – getting yourself out there, shaking the hands, putting a face to the name,” Morrison said. “The more people who are successful the better off we all are.”

Bjorn Nabozney, co-founder and shareholder of Big Sky Brewing Company in Missoula, will present on the benefits of simply making a business plan and being willing to adapt it.

Nabozney started logging in the Flathead after graduating from Flathead High School, but decided to get his finance degree after the industry started experiencing declines. He wrote the business plan for his brewery in his senior year, something he said he has rewritten about 50 times.

Business adaptation is key to success, Nabozney stressed, because neither the market nor the consumers are usually looking for products from the past.

“The quality of the labor pool in the Flathead is amazing,” Nabozney said. “It’s time to start evolving or go the way of Butte.”

Catherine Todd of Whitefish-based Tally-ho Marketing said she would focus on branding opportunities.

“Everybody thinks that they are unique, but often times they just have a new way to put a new spin on something that’s already being done. They try to do too much with too little,” Todd said. “They need to be best at something.”

Enduring businesses treat marketing and customer service like an investment, Todd said, and those with long-term marketing strategies will likely fare better through the tough times.

Deborah Snellen, a business owner since 1988, plans on discussing different strategies for negotiation, something every business deals with at one point or another, she said.

Businesses also have the opportunity to invest in resources they already have, Snellen said, such as their employees.

“It seems like when times get tight, often times training and employee development gets cut because it’s often times difficult to find the return on investment,” Snellen said. “But the bottom line is, right now is when we need employee development even more.”

The event presenters will offer informational packets for attendees who may want to go to two presentations at the same time, Morrison said. The event will also offer a long lunch and a follow-up social hour for attendees to mingle.

Just talking with one another, Flathead business owners may find new ways to stay afloat in tough times, Todd noted.

“There’s always opportunity to learn, there’s always a new way of thinking,” Todd said.

For more information on Success in the New West, visit www.successinthenewwest.com. Tickets cost $49 per person or $250 per booth.